And Barack Obama Thinks John McCain Doesn't Get It?

Posted by LM Stansbury on Friday, September 05, 2008 12:00:00 AM

For the first part of John McCain’s speech, I must admit I was somewhat bored. By the end however, I was on the edge of my seat as the crowds cheered and John McCain shouted his litany of those things against which we Americans’ will always fight. How inspiring to hear such declarations from an American POW. By the end of his speech, John McCain had the crowd on its feet, much in the way we had anticipated Barack Obama would do in his Greek temple address. This however, is really not a fare comparison for with all of the eloquent words and stunning backdrops and roaring crowds Barack Obama could have conjured, his story could never have compared with that told my John McCain last night. McCain’s speech was soaring, but not so much thanks to crafty speech writing or impressive delivery, rather because the story itself was transcending.

A friend of ours, who will be voting for Barack Obama, recently commented that while he was appreciative of McCain’s POW service, such service did not necessarily equal qualification for the Presidency. True, but then what is it exactly that makes Barack Obama better? In Rudy Giuliani’s speech the night prior, he brilliantly displayed the two candidates in resume form, stripping their names and party affiliations, referring solely to their experience. The difference was stark. A week ago, we watched the documentary of a man’s rise to stardom from the coast of Hawaii to his education at Harvard to his life in Chicago and eventually in the U.S. Senate. A week later, we listened to a man talk about the time in which his body and spirit were broken in the service of his country. We watched on as he later returned to that same country as a legislator to repair the damaged relationship between the two countries. His story brought tears to the eyes of Veterans throughout the room and left most the rest of us painfully humbled, aware how precious little we personally had sacrificed for that same great cause. Certainly being a POW does not necessarily make one fit for the office President but it does beg the question, what more could a candidate possibly have done to prove his love of country?

Married to a military man myself, I am daily impressed by the sorts of men and women who serve in our armed forces. We would be fortunate to have one of them serve in our White House. Their standard of excellence, their demands for maturity and their codes of honor make for some of the most amazing Americans I have ever met. And Barack Obama thinks that John McCain is the one who doesn’t get it?